Ben Foster interview for PANDORUM

Foster takes us behind the scenes of new claustrophobic, horror, sci-fi movie Pandorum.

After dropping out of high school and moving to LA, Foster bagged a role in the television series Flash Forward and also appeared in two episodes of Judd Apatow’s cult series Freaks and Geeks. In 2003, he snared a recurring role in the HBO Original Series, Six Feet Under, starring in 22 episodes. His film credits include Phone Booth and 11:14 (both 2003), The Punisher (2004), Hostage (2005) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), where he played comic-book hero Angel/Warren Worthington III. He gained further notice with notable turns in the crime thriller Alpha Dog (2006), and in Sam Raimi’s graphic novel adaptation 30 Days of Night (2007); in the same year he also earned rave reviews for his performance as cold-blooded killer Charlie Prince in the critically acclaimed Western 3:10 to Yuma. In Pandorum, Christian Alvart’s sci-fi chiller, Foster stars as Cpl Bower…

Can you tell us a little about your character in Pandorum and how he fits into the narrative?

Bower is a corporal who wakes up on a ship, and he doesn’t know who he is, doesn’t know where he is. As his memory returns he is joined by Payton, played by Dennis Quaid, who is also on the ship, and they think that they have got to get out of this particular room that they’re in – the room in which they wake up. The only way to get out of this room is through an airshaft and as Bower crawls out and begins to explore the ship, he recalls more and more who he is, from his past. And he realises that he has to do more than just wait for other people to take action. That’s about all I can say – say too much and I’ll give it all away!

Did the script surprise you at all?

Yes. For the genre, it covers a lot of ground and, fortunately, in some scenes I can say that I was surprised when I read it! I haven’t participated in a film like this before and this one drew my attention and gives a lot of room to play as an actor.

How would you describe Pandorum – a thriller, a horror, a suspense movie?

What’s the tag line? It’s a claustrophobic, horror, sci-fi. I think the horror wouldn’t be a wrong thing to hint at but it’s certainly not a standard horror. People who have an appetite for thrillers will be quite pleased, as well as sci-fi junkies and people who like to have a challenging dark story to follow.

The director, Christian Alvart, said that it’s hard to make a successful sci-fi movie...

I wish someone had told me that about a month ago! No, seriously, I don’t know what works and why it works any more. I certainly don’t have any concept. What I do know is that Christian Alvart is one hell of a shooter. He has a terrific eye and he will bring that very sharp and specific eye to this genre, and I think it will only benefit from that. He’s certainly one of the most aesthetically based directors I have ever worked with. He knows this film backwards and forwards. He has 800 storyboards that he’s done himself, which is very unusual. This film could be released as a graphic novel!

Explain a little bit about the scene where you wake up after hyper-sleep in the pod…

It was pretty unpleasant. It was unpleasant to shoot, for sure. But that serves the scene and the movie. If it is physically demanding, usually something will come through. If you are in a lot of pain physically and emotionally, generally some of that is translated into the performance.

How was it physically painful?

Well, it was the first day of filming and we had to prep the scene. Of course, instead of sleeping for many years, which is kinda impossible in real life, I decided not to sleep, and I stopped eating for a couple of days, too. Then, on set, you get stripped down and you get put into basically a thong and a harness covered in skin and everyone is screaming in German because it’s day one. There was a lot of screaming! So, all in all, I would say it was a demanding day. And I hope it translates.

Were you a fan of Dennis Quaid when you were growing up?

It is super exciting to play with him. As a kid – I probably shouldn’t say ‘as a kid’ because it wasn’t very long ago – I saw Innerspace about 30 times! He’s been a lot of fun to work with, and a lot of fun to play with. He’s got a great sense of play as a man. We have a good time, although, to be honest, we don’t have too much time to go and do stuff. This film, we’ve got to get this. If we were working somewhere else, we would have a budget three times as much. But the incredible thing about shooting in Berlin is the crews and their amazing professionalism. It’s a machine, and, as such, you get a very high standard for a much smaller amount of money. I feel we are making a big movie on a tight leash, and I think great things can come out of that.

Your performances to date have brought almost universal praise. Does that put any extra pressure on you?

It’s nice when anyone writes that they like what you do. It’s like building a chair. ‘I like your chair, man.’ Great, but it doesn’t mean the next chair is going to be any good. There’s always going to be relearning particularly with different genres. You’ve got to find it all over again. I’ve just been lucky to play some interesting lunatics and to learn some of the hazards. The best directors I ever worked with tell me what they want and then are confident in their material to play. With 3:10 to Yuma, for example, James [Mangold, the director] liked to play, so he takes a lot of chances, which not everybody is interested in. And Christian Alvart is the same. He seems to have a lot of trust, and that’s great. So far, he’s getting the shots. He seems happy. And if he’s happy, I am happy.

Are you a fan of sci-fi? Alien has been mentioned a few times in connection with this movie…

That film’s too scary for me. I’m not good with scary movies. I don’t mind making them, but my real-life nightmares are pretty vivid so I don’t really need a lot of help from movies! It’s a great way to deal with your nightmares and fears, to make movies. You get to look at them from a different angle, which is probably why to some degree I am interested in darker stories. It’s more of a confrontation than anything else. But, also, I’d like to do all sort of other films. I’d love to do a major comedy. Absolutely. Relationships can be as scary as horror films! It’s not that I don’t enjoy it. It is just that it scares the living hell out of me. For me, though, things like The Exorcist – that puts me right over the edge. And it’s stuff with spirits and possession that freaks me out. The slasher films work, too, and for me they are very unnerving.

You left school at 15 to head for Hollywood, and you got work quite quickly. But did you ever think that you’d made a mistake?

It’s peaks and valleys, man. When you work a lot you work a lot, and you certainly doubt yourself when you don’t have a lot to fall back on. But then if I weren’t an actor I’d probably be locked up. I firmly believe that. I got really lucky.

How do you mean?

Like I said, it’s just that I got lucky. I suppose storytelling or acting requires a certain level of internal potential for extreme circumstances. Drama being drama it helps to have these kinds of spaces live inside you. And if you don’t put them into something it eats you alive.

You’ve played a lot of angst-ridden characters. Were you actively looking for those kinds of part then?

It’s more something in acting that shows up and you either respond to it at the moment or you don’t. I know what I’d like to play and when it showed up it felt right and I wanted to do it.

Do you rely on your instincts in that situation?

Extremely. So many different things work for different people. For me, it is more intuitive. I’d like to say it’s some grand plan that I have but it’s not! There’s logic to it – in which is you read the script, and you read the script and you read the script! And it slowly starts telling you things and you start seeing patterns, which maybe the writer intended or maybe he didn’t, but you start projecting your own patterns. Some things start showing up and then you take the logic and try to marry to the logic as well. So with regard to that scene we talked about in this movie, you have been sleeping for a long time and you have got tubes stuck in you, and you are being fed intravenously. Hence you will be in a bit of raw state – it’ll be putting a lot of strain on the body, and then the body reacts.

You’ve also shot The Messenger, a modern wartime love story, right?

Yes. The Messenger isn’t about war, or politics. It’s about how we deal with grief and we all have to deal with grief at some point. We all lose someone. In a quiet way it’s how we deal with that. In our culture we don’t address it, don’t want to look at it or talk about it. We put our parents and grandparents in homes but we don’t actually know how to deal with our own grief. The way to deal with grief is by acknowledging it with clear eyes and with that acknowledgement catharsis can come.

You’ve dabbled in TV a bit, too…

I did a couple of guest spots in My Name is Earl. I’m pals with Jason Lee and when he suggested it I said, ‘Sure man.’ There are some fantastic things going on in television right now. It’s more like what was going on in the ’70s, in the studio system when the big companies had no idea what works so the writers were taking more chances. When the guys with the money don’t know what to do with it and throw up their hands, things can just slip through. And I think more and more in television things are slipping through. Deadwood was fantastic, and The Shield, too. There’s some challenging TV out there. And even My Name is Earl. Although a standard comedy, it’s intelligently done. And the original Office was ground breaking. It is hard to beat that. But I loved doing Earl; it is wonderfully ridiculous and a silly, lovely show!

by  movies.ie